Same club, new crib. With the blessing of our illustrious host and founder of the original Jet Setters, Mr Billy, I'm currently pulling content from the old site and will post any informative / relevant stuff I can find, including setups, effects loop compatibility, modifications, resources, and whatever else looks and sounds good. I'm not claiming to be the foremost expert on these amps, but I've got a good enough grasp on what works and what doesn't, and am hoping that those of you that are (or were) using Jet City equipment will pipe in with your own expertise and insight to build a strong community here.

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Loop Level Stuff:Ebtech Line Level Shifter (streets for $75.99, according to racerevelon)

Pedals that do NOT work in the loop:EHX Small Stone and Small CloneJoyo phaser, chorus, and delay, according to DocRawkI tried my MXR Eq, and found it to have some distortion issues - I may have to retract it from 'working' statusZoom G3 has been removed from 'working' status by spadearcher

Reference and Modifications Threads We've begun creating new threads for each mod, to keep things clean - if you have a mod to post, please put start it in the DIY area and let me know about it in this thread so I can reference it here.

Slope resistor mod (reshapes upper mids) - CTN's is here and my copy, along with some pics of my clean and scoop switches can be found here

Heater elevation (reduces hiss / hum by rerouting heater AC away from signal components) - Big John made an excellent tutorial, which starts here. midnightlaundry followed suit, and reports great results as well. Apparently, this was something that Soldano, himself, did to fix up a JCA amp sent in for warranty work.

KT66 Tubes in JCA50 - Although KT66's are intended to be a drop-in replacement for the 6L6, there is some concern that the stock PT may not be able to supply the additional current required by the bigger tube. There is considerable discussion about PT and OT upgrades starting on page 4 of this thread.

JCA Tone Stack - Interesting discussion about setting up the passive tone stack in JCA designs. Advice is to turn everything on the EQ to max & dial down to taste.

Special note to anyone starting to go through this thread (or are just a glutton for punishment ): please let us know if you find any particular tidbit in this or any other threads out there that could be added to this list. I've recently (Jan 2015) gone back through the whole thread and referenced things that were of interest to me - perhaps I missed something. Let's make this the preeminent source on all things JCA!

I'm currently running it on the normal channel with the gain a little past noon and boosting it with a Fulltone OCD. Alot of punch, clarity, and twang running it this way with my Fender guitars. Cut's through the mix like a machete.

Here's my JCA50H, with a couple mods - custom panel (built-up frame around expanded metal grille with velcro hold-downs), front-panel depth control, clean and scoop switches (thanks Edge11!). Finished the look with chicken heads. I really like both channels, and recently got into boosting the lo-gain channel with my new Bad Monkey. Good stuff! I generally keep the gain to 3 (give or take) on the OD channel - I think I need to lower my pickups, 'cause it's gainy as hell. Love the tone, though - running mids and bass pretty high and dropping the treble and presence to tame some of the brightness of the amp. Also retubed and biased with all JJs from Eurotubes.

Speaker cabs are a <ahem> Line6 4x12 that (to me) doesn't sound too bad, although I'm really after a Randall XL with V30s. Also have a 2x12 that I built up from scratch using speakers from my old Boogie vertical half-back. I divided the cab in two - a partially open section for the C90 and a Thiele side built to TL806 specs.

I'm currently running it on the normal channel with the gain a little past noon and boosting it with a Fulltone OCD. Alot of punch, clarity, and twang running it this way with my Fender guitars. Cut's through the mix like a machete.

Welcome! I really like the tone on your SoundCloud songs - were they recorded on your JCA?

I'm in! I started with a JCA20h and JCA12 cab. Last year I pulled some strings (I don't work for JCA but dud write the user manuals) and scored a JCA22H that Mike Soldano modded so that the Crunch channel is a true clean channel. Also switched to chickenhead knobs. I loves it so!

Welcome! I was really in a quandary about the 22h, which was announced, but not quite available in the summer of 2011, which is when I had cash in hand and lack of patience. Ended up getting the 50 and have been really happy, but the form factor of the 22h was what I really wanted at the time.

I'm curious -have either of you done a comparison of the 22 to the 50 or 100? Does the el84 make a big tonal difference to the 6l6 design?

The BFG mod looks and sounds amazing from the vids I have seen, I would probably do the Double Deuce mod.Mine is stock, I can see a separate BFG modded one in the future, I just can't bear to mess with the one I have, it sounds great as is.

Also as far as the pilot light, I'm kinda tired of the blue. I want to change it to a yellow/orange light instead. I think when I next bias my amp I'll check the voltage at the pilot light and see if I can just use a standard bulb assembly instead.

I'm currently running it on the normal channel with the gain a little past noon and boosting it with a Fulltone OCD. Alot of punch, clarity, and twang running it this way with my Fender guitars. Cut's through the mix like a machete.

Welcome! I really like the tone on your SoundCloud songs - were they recorded on your JCA?

My parts on those tracks were done on the overdrive channel on my JAC100h into my Mojo 4x12 loaded with Greenbacks. The other guitar player was running through the green channel on a Marshall DSL100 halfstack. He played lead on "Not Quite Home" and I played lead on "Joyride".

Why not just do the loop mod to the 50H and 100H so all pedals work? Just a resistor and cap addition! Just put a 860r-1k resistor in // to the 2k2 in R25 and a 4u7 cap in // to the 2k2 in R21. The cap and the 1k over R25 should be about 0dbv level or the 860r over R25 should be about -4dbv. Makes the amp a little stiffer/clearer, but the difference may never be noticed. I did the change to my SLO Clone.

I did the loop mod and did not like the tone at all, it takes off a lot of the organic feel of the amp. I spoke with Mike Soldano about it and he also advises against it.

The 22H has a good loop design, though. Too bad the bigger guys didn't get it. Oh well, at least you found a whole bunch of pedals that get along with the loop. I didn't mind the difference in tone/feel with my Clone. I had changed a lot of that one, anyway. Was more like a Bogner XTC when I was done with it.

Guys, I'm a self admitted noob to most of the tech stuff, so dont be too hard on me! hahaAnyway I have a JCA22H and when i first turn the amp on there's an initial burst of volume for a second thenit settles down. Its also a bit noisy.Anyone have any ideas??

Looks like most of the old gang has checked in now - except Edge11, of course. Glad to see ya'll made it, and we have some new blood, too.

Jase - I'm not sure what you're describing - only time I might get a rush of volume is when I kick the channel switch the first time after I power up (not sure if its going from clean to OD or vice-versa). I do get some hiss on my amp, but I'm dealing with shitty power at my house, have the covers off my pre-tubes, and may have some wiring on my mods that may not be 100% kosher. But it still sounds gooooood . Can you post a clip?

Neil - I'm dying to grammar nazi your 'more darker' thing as payback for the legos lecture (I just can't help myself), but I'll just leave it at that. Can't wait to hear what you come up with on the tone and pedal quests.

I miss my modded JCA100. Had the Depth mod. It was a great second amp. It was just sitting around and my buddy needed a new amp, so i sold it to him.

I also had the effects loop mod for about a week. It killed the amp volume-wise and tone-wise. Don't ever do that mod. Honestly, it didnt help the issue that much anyway. Delays sounded slightly better i guess.

also.. anyone with a 50 or 100, i highly recommend trying the Sovtek 6l6wxt+'s. They really tightened up the low end made that amp scream.

I've heard that from more than one place - might have been you and Billy a while back. I'm still using the set of JJs I picked up when I first got the amp, so I don't really have any basis of comparison. Might just have to check into the wxt+'s when I change them out.

I did the loop mod and did not like the tone at all, it takes off a lot of the organic feel of the amp. I spoke with Mike Soldano about it and he also advises against it.

This is good to know - was wondering why something like this wasn't feasible.

Billy - I asked you a while back about the Alesis Quadraverb. Did you state it was compatible, and was there something special you advised I do about making patches work?

It's not that the change isn't feasible. After the change, the tone gets a bit brighter and the playability is a little stiffer. But if you have an FX unit that doesn't work with the stock loop, and you can't live without it, it's a good compromise. You just don't get as much of that liquid flow that you had before. I built my SLO while I was also playing a Splawn QR and a Mark III, so I was used to "unforgiving". lol

Now I'm kind of wondering: For those of you who did the FX loop mod and came out with poor results, did you also do the SLO mods to your amp? Just wondering if some of the other stock values around the JCA loop just don't agree as well as it translates from the SLO to the JCA.

I did the loop mod and did not like the tone at all, it takes off a lot of the organic feel of the amp. I spoke with Mike Soldano about it and he also advises against it.

This is good to know - was wondering why something like this wasn't feasible.

Billy - I asked you a while back about the Alesis Quadraverb. Did you state it was compatible, and was there something special you advised I do about making patches work?

It's not that the change isn't feasible. After the change, the tone gets a bit brighter and the playability is a little stiffer. But if you have an FX unit that doesn't work with the stock loop, and you can't live without it, it's a good compromise. You just don't get as much of that liquid flow that you had before. I built my SLO while I was also playing a Splawn QR and a Mark III, so I was used to "unforgiving". lol

you also lose a considerable amount of volume with the mod. Olaf explained to me why, but i don't remember. You just have to kick up the volume a couple numbers, so if you are already pushing the amp volume-wise, it may be an issue. For me though, i just hated the tone with the mod. It was very stiff and awkward.

Now I'm kind of wondering: For those of you who did the FX loop mod and came out with poor results, did you also do the SLO mods to your amp? Just wondering if some of the other stock values around the JCA loop just don't agree as well as it translates from the SLO to the JCA.

I did not have the SLO mods. Just some SGR switchouts to allow EL34's if i wanted and a depth mod.

When I did the mod to my SLO clone, I didn't notice much of a volume drop, if any. Some extra stiffness and brightness, yes.

Not trying to kick a dying horse here, guys. Just trying to find a good alternative for some guys and gals who can't live without certain pedals. My Carbon Copy and old Boss DD3 delays and some old reverb (can't remember which one) used to get all garbled with the stock loop. They were much happier with the loop mod.

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